"You shared my womb...

...with your sisters and now you have to share me with them too."

Allie hasn't been sharing very well lately. She has taken to ripping toys and books out of Anna and Em's hands. Em is fairly laid back so she usually brushes it off and moves on but poor Anna is afraid to fight back. She can become quite upset by it. As can Em, at times.

Part of the problem is that Allie has to share Momma, Dada and Grammy. You don't know how many times I've been holding Em or Anna and Allie will come over and want to be held. If I attempt to hold two of them at the same time, Allie will try to push the other baby off of me. I can't tell if she's taking toys away from the other two in an attempt to get attention (because I DO reprimand her for doing so) or if she is testing her boundaries. Maybe it's a little bit of both.

Last week, after watching her tear toys away from Em and Anna numerous times, I explained to her that what she was doing was wrong, made her give the toy back and then walked her over to the Time Out Corner. We have a retired aerobic step in front of the window so that the girls can see outside better. I decided that sitting on the step would be time out.

A few days later, I watched her take something away from Anna so I asked her to give it back and go to Time Out. She actually walked over and sat on the step by herself.

Fast forward to Saturday night. Rich was reading one of the Olivia books to Em and Allie while I cathed Anna. There's a part in the book where Olivia has to take a time out. I was trying to put Anna's jammies on when I heard Rich say, "Allie, what are you doing? You don't have to go to time out." The poor thing heard Rich say "time out" while reading and went over to sit on the step. She thought Rich was giving her a time out!

After Rich told her that it was okay and that she didn't have a time out, she came running over to me all upset. I had to hold her to calm her down. She put her little head on my shoulder and squeezed my arms. She was probably wondering what she had done wrong. I made sure to tell her that it was a mistake and that she had been a good girl. Poor baby!

I should note here that Em and even Anna herself take turns stealing items. They're not completely innocent.